Built in 1926 by Eileen Gray, E1027 is a small white villa on top of a cliff in the French Riviera village of Cap Martin. This iconic home invokes a special allure for all lovers of modern design. Not because of its breathtaking Bay of Monaco views, and not because of the murals that architect and next-door neighbor Le Corbusier painted there (and was famously photographed while doing so), but because it is one of the earliest masterpieces of modernist domestic architecture.

E1027 was built of reinforced concrete, composed of geometrical and asymmetrical distribution of volumes. Its form is characterized by lack of ornament, and an absence of both decorative embellishment and historical references. Its abstraction, the flat roof, and the play between geometrical elements comprise its definition as a modernist dwelling. It was Eileen Gray's experimental dream, where efficiency and light, machine aesthetics, and notions of space-saving and flexibility were woven together seamlessly. It was the first home built by this pioneer, who despite her fame, built only two houses in her entire career. Unlike many stars of the Modern Movement, Gray designed E1027 not as an architectural statement, but rather as a seaside love nest.